Cigarette-making appliance

ABSTRACT

A manually operable device for making cigarettes in which a chamber is formed between a stationary part of the device and a sliding part. The sliding part has a nozzle in or on it. Over the nozzle a pre-formed tube of cigarette paper can be clamped. The tobacco in the chamber is compressed to form a plug and the sliding part slid so as to reduce the chamber size thereby forcing the plug through the nozzle and into the tube of paper to form a cigarette.

Umted States Paten [1 1 3,699,975

Saraber 1 Oct. '24, 1972 [54] CIGARETTE-MAKING APPLIANCE 52,842 2 /l866 Gassette ..l3l/70 2,668,545 2/1954 Burnstein ..13l/70 [72] G 2,731,971 1/1956 Kastner ..131/7o den, Sw1tzerland [73] Assignee: Gizeh-Werk G.m.b.H, a y

- Bemeustadt/Rhld, Germany Primary Examiner-Samuel Koren Assistant Examiner-J. F; Pitrelli Filed: 4, Attorney-Holman & m [21] App]. No.: 69,6l6'

, Y [57] ABSTRACT [30] Foreign Apphcauon Pnomy Dam I A manually operable device for making cigarettes in Sept. 9, 1969 Germany..... .....P 19 45 498.9 which a chamber is formed between a stationary part of the device and a sliding part. The sliding part has a [52] US. Cl .....l3l/70" nozzle in or on it. Over the nozzle a pre-formed tube [51] Int. Cl ..;A24c 05/42 of Cigarette paper can be clamped. The tobacco in the [58] Field of Search ..131/70, 75 chamber i compressed to form a P and the sliding part slid so as to reduce the chamber size thereby 5 k f 'cn d forcing the plug through the nozzle and into the tube a v v of paper to form a cigarette. UNITED STATES PATENTS v 7 2,329,163 9/1943 Reid eral. .......131/7o 561311111913 D'awmg F'gms //0'//// r/ x\\\\\\\\\ I y s 4 A b 20 7 k *5 W J; '//1 7/1 p it Z. 4 j \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\s\\\\\\\\\\\\ 4 SHEET 1 OF 3 III/ 41] II/IIIIIII I IIIIIIIIII/ FIG. 2

IN VEN TOR -PETRUS GERARDUS SARABER A-rweuzvs PATENTEDnmu m2 3.699.975

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INVEN TOR PETRU S G ERAR DU S SA RABER A vnnnzvs PATENTEDUBT 24 m2 SHEET 3 OF 3 FIG. 7

INVEN TOR PETRUS GERARDUS SARABER.

1 CIGARETTE-MAKING APPLIANCE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In known cigarette-making appliances, a plug of tobacco formed by a horizontally movable compression plate is inserted by an ejector capable of moving in the direction of. the cigarette tube, into the tube held on a hollow nozzle. The nozzle is accommodated on the outside of the appliance, while the ejector part is movably arranged inside it.

All such devices employ a drive comprising numerous components such as levers, cams, parallel motions, and so on for the drive of the compression plate and of the ejectorpart. This'm'akes for a very intricate design, involving laborious production processes and therefore expensive. Also, on account of the comparatively large number of inter-acting parts, these applicances suffer much from wear and troubles. It is a further disadvantage that the lever and crank drives necessarily require considerable space. This makes these appliances unhandy and impairs also their appearance. The numerous articulations and sliding guides require much force to overcome the friction so that more force is required for the operation of the appliance than would be needed for the actual filling process. It is true that this can be overcome by using a long operating lever but quite apart from making the appliance more awkward, this has the disadvantage that if there is any jamming, for instance, if too much tobacco has been put into the appliance, it may easily be damaged or the cigarette paper tube bursts, because with the larger lever transmission, the feeling for the correct operating force is lost.

The object of the invention is to remove the existing disadvantages and inadequacies and to provide a cigarette-making appliance with the components described above, and being in particular of simple, un-

complicated design, taking up very little space, easily operated, and suitable for pleasing styling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION For this purpose, the invention provides for the compression plate and the pin and also the clamping device for the cigarette paper tube to be arranged directly on a hand-operated slide, while a stop for the tobacco cord is arranged in the casing guiding the slide. The casing may also comprise a fixed guide tongue or the like.

A device of this kind can do entirely without awkward components and complicated drive arrangements. It comprises few parts, is of simple shape, which is an advantage in particular from the point of view of manufacture. A further advantage consists in that the appliance can be made very small. If it is made as a part of, or built into, a casing of a given size, the space saved by the compact design now becomes available for accommodating tobacco and/or cigarette paper tubes. Since there are no projecting levers or cranks as in the known appliance, the device can be made in an elegant style, so as to be of pleasing appearance, containing the necessary requisites and suitable for being left standing about, for instance, as a table cigarette-maker in the home.

There are various possibilities available for accommodating the compression plate on the slide. An advantageous arrangement is one in which the compression plate isv pivoted on the slide. In particular, the

pivoting point may then be placed on the end of the slide opposite the hollow nozzle.

According to a further feature of the invention, the compression plate forms at the same time the operating part for the clamping device holding the cigarette paper tube on the nozzle, or it may be itself designed as a clamping device. This achieves a particularly simple and convenient design of the appliance.

The walls of the casing guiding the slide may then be equipped with support faces, at different levels, for the compression means. This enables the position of the compression means in relation to the slide to be governed by the distance covered by the slide, thu's ensuring the correct operation of the clamping device by the compression plate. I

. The casing of the appliance does not have to contain any parts other than the slide guide but it may be convenient to provide one or several chambers for tobacco and/or cigarette paper tubes.

Further details and features of the invention will be found in the following description of an embodiment of the appliance according'to the invention, shown in the drawing:

BRIEF-DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the general arrangement of the appliance,

FIG. 2 is a cross-section through the appliance,

FIG. 3 is a section along the trace line III-III of FIG. 2, the view looking in the direction of the arrows,

FIG. 4 is a section, corresponding to that of FIG. 3, but in a different position of the slide,

FIG. 5 is a detail view showing the design of the support for the compression plate,

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the slide, without compression plate,

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal section through the slide,

FIGS. 8 and 9 are front views of the slide,

FIG..10 is a view of the front end of the slide with the clamping piece inserted,

FIG. 11 is a section along the line XI-XI of FIG. 6, with the complete clamping device, the view looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 12 is a section along the line XII-XII of FIG. 6, the view looking in the direction of the arrows, and

FIG. 13 is a section along the line XIII-XIII of FIG. 6, the view looking in the direction of the arrows. I

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The appliance has a casing 1 divided in the arrangement shown into two compartments 11 and 3. The compartment 11 forms a chamber closeable by means of a lid 2, for storing tobacco and paper tubes, while the compartment 3 which is smaller is the actual cigarettemaking part. A slide 4 can slide longitudinally on guide bars 27 between side walls 21 of this compartment 3. A v

nozzle 5 for accommodating a paper tube 24 is firmly fixed, for instance, by pressing in or forming during manufacture, at the front face of the slide 4. In FIGS. 3,

in one plane with the top edge of the slide 4, while a gap 19 is left clear between the nozzle 5 and the clamping piece 6 so as to enable the paper tube 24 to be pushed on the nozzle 5 without impediment.

A tobacco compression means formed as a compression plate 7 is pivoted at the end of the slide 4 opposite the nozzle 5, by means of a hinge or hinge pin 8. A guttenshaped guide tongue 9 is accommodated in the casing part 3 by means of screws 12 and a holding piece 23. An elongated recess 14 in the slide 4 forms a tobacco chamber. The semicircular, round bottom of the chamber has a slot-shaped aperture 15. The length of the slot limits the path of theslide 4, and it may be convenient to use also one of the fixing screws 12 as a stop.

The holding piece 23 is preferably screwed to the guide tongue 9 and the tobacco chamber bottom so that there is a certain elasticity, provided, for instance, by inserting slightly elastic spring washers 13 under the heads of the screws 12, to ensure that the guide tongue 9 rests well on the bottom of the tobacco chamber. The length of the tobacco chamber 14 is limited by a cover angle on the slide 4 (see FIGS. 3, 4 and 7). In the initialtposition of the slide, this cover angle 20 covers also the holding piece 23. The latter part forms at the same time a stop for the cord of tobacco 29 formed by the compression plate 7 in the tobacco chamber.

The compression plate 7 is at the same time also very convenient for operating the clamping device for the paper tube. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the side walls 21 of the casing part 3 forming the slide guide are each made with a recess 22 and stop faces 30. The depth of the recess 22 should be slightly greater than the height of the gap 19 (FIG. 3, 11) between the nozzle 5 and the clamping piece 6. The compression plate 7 rests in its downward turned position on the upper sides of the side walls 21. When the slide 4 is shifted, the recesses 22 in the side walls 21 give the compression plate 7 a slight downward motion, after it has been moved for a short distance, when a pressure is applied to it, so that a cam 26 (FIGS. 3, 4) at the front end of the compression plate pushes down the clamping piece 6 and thus clamps the paper tube 24 to the nozzle 5. Just before the slide has completed its path, this clamping action is removed again, because the compression plate is slightly lifted by the end of the recesses 22. The short distances at the beginning and at the end of the slide motion, where the cigarette paper tube is not clamped, are most conveniently arranged so as to correspond roughly to the length of the nozzle 5. With the exception of these short distances, there is a gap 28 (FIGS. 2, 5) between the compression plate 7 and the upper edges of the side walls 21 so that there is any friction only on lower guide bars 27 of the slide 4. This ensures a very easy motion of the slide 4. Even if some play should be formed after longer use, between the slide and the casing bottom, this is of no significance. The play could not cause any trouble because the elastic fixing of the guide tongue 9 always accommodates itself to the bottom of the tobacco chamber and all other parts governing the cigarette-making process are fixed to the slide.

The appliance operates as follows. After the compression plate 7 has been folded back, an operation which could be facilitated by providing a nose or projection 25 (FIG. 5) at its front end, the tobacco chamber 14, now open, can be filled with tobacco. Then thecompression plate 7 is pushed down, and an empty cigarette paper tube 24 is pushed on the nozzle 5. Now it is only necessary to move the slide 4 once forward and back. The cigarette making process is now completed.

During the operation of the slide 4, first the downwardly directed pressure pushes the tobacco into the semi-circular recess on the lower part of the compression chamber and it is compressed into a cord 29 of tobacco by the compression chamber 10 (FIG. 2) bounded by the guide tongue 9. By the motion of the slide 4 to the right (FIG. 4), the tube is pulled over the tobacco cord 29. The tube 24 is now held on the nozzle 5 by the pressure exerted on the compression plate by the clamping piece 6, while this is being pushed down. The forces are shown in FIG. 4. Just before the end of the process, when only the end of the plug of tobacco 29 is left in the hollow nozzle 5, the clamping piece 6 is released and the clamping action removed, so that on further motion of the slide 4 up to its stop, the almost completed cigarette remains standing and the hollow nozzle 5 is pulled out of it. The clamping piece is released by the slight upward motion of the compression plate 7 at the end of the recesses 22 in the side walls 21. If now the slide 4 moves in the opposite direction, it pushes the finished cigarette in front of it, pulling it at the same time off the guide tongue 9 and finally ejecting it.

All features mentioned in the above specification and/or shown in the drawing can be regarded independently or in combination as parts of the invention, to the extent that this is permitted by the known state of the art, even if this is not specifically mentioned in the claims.

I claim:

l. A manual device for filling a tube of cigarette paper comprising a casing, a slide carried by the casing, a chamber for tobacco formed in the slide, a nozzle mounted on the slide and which communicates with the chamber, clamp means for holding a tube of cigarette paper on the nozzle, compression means pivoted on the slide at the end of the slide opposite the nozzle whereby tobacco in the chamber can be compressed into a plug by the compression means and by manually pushing the slide portion so as to reduce the chamber capacity, the plug is forced through the nozzle into the tube of cigarette paper, thus forming a cigarette.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a guiding tongue fixed to the casing and dimensioned so as to be able to pass through the nozzle whereby the plug is guided into the tube of cigarette paper.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the compression means forms an actuating part for the clamp means for holding the cigarette tube.

v 4. The device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the casing has walls guiding the slide, said walls being equipped on at least a part of their length with recesses or grooves.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the compression means is adapted to form a clamp means. 

1. A manual device for filling a tube of cigarette paper comprising a casing, a slide carried by the casing, a chamber for tobacco formed in the slide, a nozzle mounted on the slide and which communicates with the chamber, clamp means for holding a tube of cigarette paper on the nozzle, compression means pivoted on the slide at the end of the slide opposite the nozzle whereby tobacco in the chamber can be compressed into a plug by the compression means and by manually pushing the slide portion so as to reduce the chamber capacity, the plug is forced through the nozzle into the tube of cigarette paper, thus forming a cigarette.
 2. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a guiding tongue fixed to the casing and dimensioned so as to be able to pass through the nozzle whereby the plug is guided into the tube of cigarette paper.
 3. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the compression means forms an actuating part for the clamp means for holding the cigarette tube.
 4. The device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the casing has walls guiding the slide, said walls being equipped on at least a part of their length with recesses or grooves.
 5. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the compression means is adapted to form a clamp means. 